Widespread use of disposable food packaging has been adopted by restaurants, fast food establishments and people generally. In some cases, and in the case of the packaging of condiments, the design of the condiment packaging design option has been driven by food preservation and enabling the user to select only those condiments he/she wants to add to the particular meal or drink. As a result, traditional dry and wet condiment packets are typically limited to a single condiment. For example, ketchup packets, mayonnaise, mustard, hot sauce, salt, pepper, sweeteners, etc. Using individually packed wet/dry single condiment demands that a customer desiring to mix two condiments before adding to the food/drink to dispense in a bowl and use cutlery to mix. For instance, if a user visits a take out fast food place and wants to make a mixture of two or more condiments, e.g., russian dressing, to put on their food, he/she would get a ketchup packet and a mayonnaise packet, dispense into a container and use a fork to mix the two together.
More recently, various types of packets have been designed to improve the user's experience and reduce waste. For example, U.S. Pat. Pub. No. US 20120223099 A1 describes a container that uses a foldable hard piece of plastic to squeeze all of the packet's contents out of the package when it is folded in half; U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 20060237477 A1 similarly describes a packet with two chambers for two types of condiments to be dispensed through a common nozzle; U.S. Pat. No. 7,121,409 B1 describes a packet with a hard tray portion that breaks in half releasing substance out of the center of the packet; and U.S. Pat. Pub. No. US20140033655 describes a packet that allows for additive fluid/substance from outside of the packet to be added and mixed with a packet's content, all of which suffer from being able to mix controlled amounts of two or more separately contained condiments before dispensing, as well as adding unmixed contents of a selected unmixed condiment type from two or more condiments in a practical and improved configurable packet alternative. Accordingly;
There is a need for low cost condiment packaging that can be used for more than one type of condiment and is designed to reduce waste materials;
There is a need for condiment packaging that allows a user to mix amounts of two or more separately contained condiments prior to dispensing;
There is a need for condiment packaging that enables a user the controlled dispensing of one or both of a condiment mixture and an individual condiment;
There is a need to consolidate condiments in packaging to provide a user with mixture options that include different rations of each of the condiments according to personal preference.
Accordingly, improved practical disposable configurable packets that can be easily and relatively inexpensively manufactured and overcome the aforementioned needs are desired.